Living a Life of Wonder...

Rumi: Why We Have Hard Times

Sometimes life is so hard. We ask ourselves “Why is this happening?”.. We wish things were different, or had gone differently.. And there times where we have real “dark nights of the soul” where everything that we once believed doesn’t make any sense and we don’t know what to do next.. Nothing makes any sense any more.

And when we only focus on the physical world, the world of material things, the world of our roles in society, what we are “supposed” to be doing, how we are supposed to feel and how we think/hope/wish things were going, we can end up in real despair..

But what if there is other purpose to these hard times? What if there is a honing of our lives? What if there is something much greater going on?

Rumi was a great mystic.. So his desire was to experience the divine in life.. To hold this great mystery in our consciousness without having to name it, understand it and contain it.. Just to hold this awareness.. and let it work its magic…

DISCIPLINES

Do not expect to be always happy on this way.
You have been caught by a lion, my dear.

The friend dumps plaster on your head.
Think of it as expensive perfume.

Inside you there is a monster
that must be tied up and whipped.

Watch the man beating a rug.
He is not mad at it.
He wants to loosen the layers of dirt.

Ego accumulations are not loosened with one swat.
Continual work is necessary, discipline.

In dreams, and even awake,
you will hear the beloved screaming at you.

A carpenter saws and chisels a piece of wood,
because he knows how he wants to use it.

Curing a hide,
the tanner rubs in acid and all manner of filth.
This makes a beautiful, soft leather.

What does the half-finished hide know?
Every hard thing that happens
works on you like that.

Hurry, Shams. Come back
like the sun comes back
every day with new
and powerful secrets.

Rumi

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